Information processing composes a critical success factor for business effectiveness. Consumer and Sales data comprise the core concept for supporting businesses to apply personalized Marketing/Sales strategies to satisfy consumers and gain competitive advantage.
Towards this strategic objective, businesses are facilitated by the huge technology capabilities incorporated in an Electronic Commerce environment, facing an attractive business opportunity. Internet, as an "information intensive" trading channel, offers the appropriate framework for realizing such an objective. This paper1 defines an Internet Consumer Behavior Framework (ICBF) or in other words the information that a virtual retail store must collect (consumer, sales and navigation data). Furthermore, based on this information/data, it introduces a framework for providing Consumer (Consumer Support Model) and Business (Business Support Model) support.
Finally, it examines the way that the various virtual store components contribute to this framework, by providing and exploiting the available information.1. IntroductionWeb as a virtual hypermedia environment incorporating interactivity with people and computers (Hoffman and Novak, 1996) represents a revolution in marketing. The Electronic Commerce model requires a very different approach to customer acquisition, support, promotion, merchandising and distribution (Aldridge and Borehamwood, 1998). Evidence shows that the Internet and Electronic Commerce with all their new developments will redefine the meaning of the Marketing 4 P's (Stil and Zimmerman, 1996). The fact is that traditional marketing mix is no longer sufficient to generate growth and it is no longer the case that the application of classic marketing tools is sufficient to achieve a competitive edge (ECR Europe Report - How to create Consumer Enthusiasm - Roadmap to growth).
Processing information is now generally accepted as the fifth "P" of the marketing mix and a large number of studies has shown that effective management of information systems/information technology can be a powerful source of enhancing value and bringing competitive advantage (Hamill and Grecory, 1997).Information can compose a key success factor for influencing effectively the consumer behavior by utilizing the huge capabilities offered by the new sales channel in a successful manner (Stil and Zimmerman, 1996). The key question then is what type of information is required to support consumers and business processes, and how can this information be collected.The purpose of this paper is to define what data should be collected and processed from a virtual retail store in order to enable it support both its consumers and its business partners.
The paper first refers to the peculiarities of Internet as a trading channel and to the transformation of Consumer Behavior over it. It emphasizes the importance of Information processing and proceeds with the presentation of three models. The first model (ICBF) defines the data that should be collected by the virtual store while the other two (CSM and BSM) define the support provided to consumers and business partners. Finally, it presents an overall framework relating the contribution of each component of the retail store to the support of consumers and business activities respectively.2. The Consumer Buying ProcessThe convenience, depth and variety of information available on the Internet may well change the nature of consumer information search behavior and evaluation of alternatives process in the future and transform generally the traditional model of the buying process (Hawkins et al, 1998).
Information processing composes a key issue and a strategic component for a company who decides to "sell through the Net".While a growing number of retailers have successfully implemented electronic commerce solutions, the experience of these early adopters provides valuable insights into how new value chains are constructed (Aldridge and Borehamwood, 1998). Online markets are significantly different in a number of aspects from the structure of "classical" or physical markets. Their typology, client potentials, price competition and client-producer interactions are considerably different from the same phenomena encountered in classical markets, where physical presence of the products and parties involved, distribution and transportation, advertisements and clearance of transactions play a role they do not yet have and to an extend never can achieve in online markets.Personalized marketing and mass customization techniques through Web sites seem to be at a preliminary stage, at least for the moment. This is a fact that requires knowledge and evaluation of the consumer's requirements but, most importantly, it requires the constant study of the consumer's behavior in the store and generally the data created by him/her (POS data).
As far as Consumer Behavior Analysis is concerned, this seems to be completely unknown in the Internet environment (Hoffman and Novak, 1996). The fact is that Web changes the nature of communication between firms and customers and customers have considerable control over which messages they receive by visiting Web sites and being exposed to marketing communications (Watson et al, 1998). This fact means that we need to re-examine and understand the consumer buying process within the virtual shopping environment.Consumers progress through the rational stages of problem/need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post-purchase behavior (Bettman, 1979; Engel et al., 1996; Howard, 1989).
In other words, the consumer in the physical environment passes through five stages during his buying process (Kotler, 1992), as described in Figure 1.FIGURE 1The development concept of a Virtual Store should use the above model as a guide, trying to offer the proper services to the consumer at every stage of the shopping process and support him/her effectively. Generally, Consumer Behavior theory should be used to inform design choices for the implementation of significant aspects of a virtual store and more particularly for it's dynamic behavior.On the other hand, business processes will be more effective by utilizing information gathered through an intelligent interface. Consumer (profiles, preferences), Navigation (shopping behavior) and Sales data will facilitate business processes to design effective strategies and reach the final consumer at a more tailored, personalized and efficient way.Before moving on to the discussion of the various frameworks, we need to mention that the research perspective used in this work is the Decision Making Perspective.
The reasons for choosing this perspective include:* Internet provides all the adequate conditions (technology enabled) to guide consumers effectively in the rational steps of need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase behavior and post purchase behavior.* Computer-Human interaction is a more personal and less influenced by external factors (i.e. other peoples' opinions) process, which means that there is a great potential for consumers to follow a rational-based approach in their shopping activity. This means that shopping over Internet is based mostly on a Decision Making perspective (five stages model) following a rational way of collecting, evaluating and disposing of information.
* An information intensive, fully supportive and personalized environment like Internet will incite consumers to follow somehow the guidelines and paths set for them by the system, due to the fact that such an environment will serve their needs and wishes in the most effective manner.* All the above factors characterize Internet as a comfortable and pleasant shopping environment, guiding and inciting consumers to use and enjoy its facilities, by following the rational stages of their shopping process easily and fast.It should be mentioned that such an environment could create enthusiasm to consumers and make them purchase (4th stage of the buying process) the specific product immediately and by-pass the first 3 stages. Also, such an environment could create needs more easily than a traditional one due to the personalized marketing techniques being applied. On the other hand, information search and evaluation of alternatives (2nd and 3rd stage of the buying process) can take place at the same time by using multi-criteria searching machines, which increase the speed of the purchase process and contribute to consumer satisfaction and enthusiasm. Finally, post purchase behavior (5th stage) can be supported and controlled effectively by the after sales support services offered by the virtual store, utilizing the technology capabilities (i.
e. answer to consumer's questions directly by e-mail).Based on the above, we can concluded that the Five Stages Model of the Consumer Buying Process may be transformed in a Virtual Shopping Environment, which means that:* Consumers may not follow the path from stage 1 to stage 5 sequentially but by-pass some stages. For example consumers may purchase the products they want straightly through shopping lists or purchase a product that is being recommended to them based on their profiles.* Consumers may follow a different than the traditional decision path. By using, for example, a search engine, consumers may be at different stages of the Five Stages Model at the same time, e.
g. information search and evaluation of alternatives. Another example refers to the situation when a consumer purchases a product and a personalized advertisement is displayed to him instantly, creating him/her a new unpredictable need.3.
Definition of Internet Consumer Behavior Framework (ICBF), Consumer Support Model (CSM) and Business Support Model (BSM)This section defines some theoretical concepts on which the philosophy, architecture and design of an Electronic Retail Store can be based on. More specifically, this chapter specifies the overall structure of the system based on five components: Consumer (C), Business (B), Internet Consumer Behavior Framework (ICBF), Consumer Support Model (CSM), and Business Support Model (BSM). It illustrates the inputs and outputs provided by and to each of these components and shows how these inputs and outputs can be handled and exploited by the virtual business environment, in order to ensure business effectiveness and consumer satisfaction. Technology plays a significant role in the whole process, by providing the required tools and components to instantly and easily apply effective marketing and sales techniques, in order to approach and influence consumers. The ICBF of the virtual retail store is presented first, followed by the presentation of CSM and BSM.
Finally, an overall framework is presented, incorporating inputs and outputs of information between the above models within the virtual marketplace.
